THE gap between poorer Cumbria students and their more affluent peers attending university has risen, figures show.

The Sutton Trust said the university access gap across England – which is as large now as it was 14 years ago – is evidence of "stubborn and ingrained inequalities" in the education system.

Data from the Department for Education shows that of 448 students in Cumbria who received free school meals at the age of 15, 47 (10.5%) were at university in 2019-20 – down from 14.4% the year before.

Of 4,711 other pupils in the area not on free school meals, 37.4% were studying in higher education at the age of 19, which was also down from 37.7% in 2018-19.

This meant that the progression rate gap between poorer pupils and non-disadvantaged students rose to 26.9 percentage points last year – up from 23.2 in 2018-19.

The Sutton Trust, which campaigns for equal access to high quality education, called for further Government funding to address the problem, as well as more support from universities for low-income students.

In Cumbria, just 2.2% of pupils eligible for free school meals progressed to high-tariff institutions – universities with higher entry requirements – by the age of 19, compared with 10.5% of those not eligible.